This year’s Open Studio event takes place on Saturday 25th Oct 1pm until 5pm at Dundas House, Middlesbrough. (The main doors will be open into Dundas House from Dundas Arcade, opposite Fultons Foods.)

During the event artists including Pete Gough, Nicola Golightly, Vicky Holbrough, Jane Elwell – The Liberartian, Gavin Lenaghan, and John Griffin will be opening their studio doors to visitors, talking about their work and sharing what they do.

We’ll also have several activities for visitors to get involved with including –

Photographer Jason Hynes will be offering visitors an opportunity for a free portrait

Artist Barbara Griffin has turned her whole studio into a giant Camera Obscura

Last years rooftop tours proved so popular last year that we’re doing them again this year at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm. Come along for a great photo opportunity and an awesome view of Middlesbrough and the area. *Weather permitting

Photograph by Nicola Golightly

We’ll have refreshments and cake available too for visitors in our ‘Hub’ space. Everyone welcome.

Our second Trash ‘n’ Treasure Art Bazaar at Festival of Thrift 2014 at Lingfield Point, Darlington, was a great success. The festival had approx. 40,000 visitors over Sat 27th and Sun 28th September. Our event took place in Yarn, Lingfield House, which is a fantastic Art deco style building on the outside with contemporary design on the inside.

As part of Trash ‘n’ Treasure we had artist stalls – selling part used or second hand artist materials, equipment and books, DIY demos – artists showing how to make tools and materials in thrifty way, ‘How To’ guide – instructions and tips on ‘Coke Can Calligraphy nibs’, Rubber stamp carving, Home made paint, Paper pulp, Recycled leather journal covers, Salt dough.

The third part of the event was the ‘Gallery of Forgotten Art’ and auction, with guest auctioneers Tea Ladies, Jean & Morag. The aim behind the gallery and auction was to get old and/or forgotten artworks out from under beds, attics and corners of artist’s studio and find loving homes for them.

Comments from visitors to Trash ‘n’ Treasure Art Bazaar

Great demonstrations and ‘How To’ guides – that will be keeping us busy!

Fab! Didn’t see the demo for the Coke can nibs – but having seen the ‘How to’ guide – you’ve made a budget strapped art teacher very happy! Thanks

Fantastic to be able to get loads of great arts and crafts stuff for my niece – re-using and re-cycling. Thank you!!

It’s very enlightening and inspiring event! I Really love it and had a great day here

The demo was amazing! going to give it a try at home

A real Treasure Trove, great atmosphere – more of this please!

Thanks to everyone who came along, lent a hand, and took part as well as the artists who shared their knowledge with us for the demos and ‘How To’ guide.

Following our involvement in the visual arts at Festival of Thrift last year at Lingfield Point, Darlington, we are proud to announce that we’ll be bringing our Trash ‘n’ Treasure Art Bazaar event to this year’s festival. We ran the first Trash ‘n’ Treasure event at The Bridge, Darlington following Festival of Thrift last year, and we have been supported by the festival to include it in this years line up of events.

Above, a stall at last years Trash ‘n’ Treasure event

Calling all artists!

Clear out your unused art materials, bits of kit you no longer use, art books and publications. For only £10 you can apply to take a stall with us at Trash ‘n’ Treasure as part of this year’s festival.

These stalls are for part used or second hand items only, not for commercial selling and items must in some way have a creative application.

For further information and to request a stall please email info@navigatornorth.com with TnT stalls in the subject header.

The Gallery of Forgotten Art auction will be take place daily at 3.45pm with guest auctioneers Tea Ladies, Jean & Morag. The gallery will show all selected works within the main Trash ‘n’ Treasure event space and then each piece will be auctioned at the end of each day in a larger outdoor area. The aim behind this gallery and auction is to get old and/or forgotten artworks out from under beds, attics and corners of artist’s studio and find loving homes for them.

Do you have a piece of artwork which you no longer want hanging around (no pun intended!)? Have you been storing a painting or print under the bed or at the back of the wardrobe and it’s sat there collecting dust?

If the answer is yes then submit your art to our Gallery of Forgotten Artwork where we aim to bring these unwanted pieces of art out into the light and find them a new loving home.

All artworks will be considered but must be no bigger than 1m square. For further information and a submission form please email info@navigatornorth with TnT gallery in the subject header.

Above, demos will include DIY art materials and equipment

Artist DIY demos

Each day in the Trash ‘n’ Treasure event space we’ll also have artist demos at 11am, 1pm and 2pm, where visitors can find out more about DIY art techniques. Each demo will have a ‘How to’ handout for visitors to take away and try themselves.

We hope to see you there and if you want to get involved, have a stall or submit art to the gallery do get in touch.

Join us for the opening of ‘Class of 14’ Bishop Auckland College’s National Diploma in Art & Design End of Year Show

Image by Abi Spears

‘Class of 14’

Preview – Thursday 3 July from 6pm

Exhibition open Fri 4, Sat 5 &Thur 12 – Sat 14 July 10-3pm

42 Market Place (formerly Poundstretcher) Bishop Auckland

Bishop Auckland College in partnership with Navigator North and East Street Arts is very proud to present a collection of work developed by this year’s National Diploma Students in our Bishop Auckland Market Place Temporary Space Bishop Auckland College’s National Diploma course has been running successfully for over ten years with over three hundred talented art students heading off to Universities including Winchester School of Art, Manchester School of Art and Central St. Martins, London.

The work included in the exhibition is a combination of final works and exploratory sketches that explore themes including places and spaces, the coast, class, science fiction, identity, culture, journeys, food and eating. Join Bishop Auckland College to celebrate the students achievements over the past year in another of our temporary spaces for art use across Tees Valley and County Durham.

Following our recent Salford Zine Exhibition in our newest Arts Space – Darlington we are inviting artists to check out the space there which we will be offering for studio, event and exhibition space.

This space is available for arts use through our work in partnership with East Street Arts on the InSitu programme – which allows for the use of empty spaces to support the arts whilst they are still up for let. We will be on hand during the viewing opportunity to talk to artists about how they might like to use the space and answer any further questions.

We would like to see the space used for both studio space and for events/exhibitions which the public can access. Following the viewing artists will be able to apply to us with an outline of how they would like to use the space.

If you are interested in this opportunity please come along to Arts Space – 8 High Row, Darlington, DL3 7QQ (small shop next door to Binns) on Monday 30th June between 4.30pm and 6.30pm.

This Saturday and Sunday afternoon visitors to our first exhibition – Salford Zine Library at 8 High Row, Darlington will be greeted by Mike Duckett and his typewriter. Mike will be using his typewriter to produce a snap shot of life in Darlington town centre as he types away at his keys to produce a running commentary of what he sees. Visitors can get in involved too and Mike will guide them on the typewriter to add to the piece.

We are pleased to announce the first exhibition to happen within our newest Arts Space at 8 High Row, Darlington, DL1 5QP. Salford Zine Library are bringing a selection of the best artist zines and creative self-published works from their collection of over 1400 zines which are usually housed within Nexus Art Café, Manchester. The library is currently run by Steve Carlton and Elizabeth Murray Jones and aims to share creative self – published works.

The exhibition will be open for visitors to come and enjoy the zines on Sat 17th & Sun 18th and Sat 24th & Sun 25th May, between 10am and 4pm. Visitors can pick up and look at the works and we will be offering a ‘reading area’ within the space to sit and enjoy the zines.

Join us on Saturday 17th May when Steve and Liz will be running a FREE drop in zine making workshop where visitors can make their own zine and contribute to a special zine we’ll be making all about Darlington, which will be the latest edition to the library. No experience needed for the workshop and all materials will be provided. Visitors can bring along any photographs, images etc . . .to include int he zine if they wish.

For the rest of the exhibition visitors can relax in the space and while stocks last, pick up and keep a limited edition copy of our Darlington zine.

We now have several arts spaces across Tees Valley and County Durham, so we thought it might be an ideal time to showcase some of the artists we have in those spaces. Without further ado, might we introduce Jayne Elwell, who works under the name The Libertarian.

Jayne is a milliner, but not as you know it. Visiting her studio, straight away you can see that she experiments with a whole variety of different materials and themes. She works to commission, has an online shop and teaches too. Her creations have caught the media’s attention numerous times at Ascot. We especially like the full english breakfast piece!

We asked Jayne why she chose Dundas House, the eight storey beast of an office block, as a place to have her studio. She said she had always worked from home and even had a studio at her Gran’s house. She liked the space in Dundas House, along with it having great light. She also likes having all her materials and kit in one room. ‘I’m not working with people, but I see people when I come into Dundas. It beats working on my own!’, says Jayne.

Jayne’s work is inspired by food, colours and Heston Blumenthal. She began specialising in hats and headwear in 2010 and hasn’t looked back. She did a course in hat making and then went on from there. These are Jayne’s words..and we are sure it wasn’t that simple! She clearly puts a lot of effort and energy into her work and her studio showcases this perfectly.

Jayne is currently working on a few commissions and a piece for Ascot 2014. Keep your eyes out for that one – its sure to be a visual treat!

If you’d like to find out more about Jayne’s work or are interested commissioning a piece, check out her website https://thelibertarian.co.uk

We’d just like to say thanks to Jayne for taking time out to supply us with a lovely cup of tea and the studio tour!